ILLINOIS GENEALOGY EXPRESS


 

Vermilion County,
Illinois

Vermilion County, Illinois

HISTORY OF GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP
Source: History of Vermilion Co., Illinois by Lottie Jones - publ. 1911
pp. 394


 



 

     Georgetown township lies in the second tier of counties from the southern border of Vermilion county.  It has the Indiana state line as the eastern border.  The vermilion river runs across its northeastern corner for about five miles with a bed so deep down as to drain the surrounding country.  The Little Vermilion makes a short term in its southern border.  This township was important territory in the first years of the life of Vermilion County, the two most used roads of this part of the state running through it.  The road known as the state road from Vincennes to Chicago ran directly through the township and the "Salt works road" over which the product of the salt works was hauled into the settlements of western Indiana, ran directly across Georgetown township.  The Cairo division of the N. Y. Central lines runs through the town following and parallel to the old state road.  This road was formerly known as the Paris and Danville road, the John Short road, and the Danville & Southwestern R. R.
     Georgetown township was originally all timber, and it attracted early settlement.  The heavy timber, the good water supply, the general lay of the land and its nearness to the salt works all tended to draw settlement that way.  Later the third portion along the western border and from the center of prairie land, made this township one of the fine farms.  The first settlement was made by Henry Johnson, in 1820, on section 36, just two miles west of Georgetown.  This was the year that James Butler made his home at what was afterwards known as Butler's Point.
     Achilles Morgan came to Vermilion County and became a settler of this township in 1825.  This immediate neighborhood was called Morgans.  Morgantown and Morgans Neighborhood.
     Brooks Point (now Kelleyville) was settled about this time.  This township was blessed with a large number of the Society of Friends coming into it and bringing their institutions.  It was the part of the county which in the early times made greatest promise of merchantile progress.
[pg. 395]
     The class of people who settled in Georgetown township were such as appreciated the value of schools.  The Georgetown seminary was the institution this part of the state at that time.
     Georgetown village was laid out in the spring of 1826, two months after Danville was surveyed.  The first plat contained four blocks of eight lots each.  The only two streets were State street, running north and south and was a portion of the old state road, and West street which cross it at right angles.  The plan of the village was the idea of a hollow square such as was followed in the plat of Danville and some of the other early villages.  There is a difference of opinion in regard to the origin of the name of Georgetown.  Some think it was named for George Beckwith, the brother of the man whose name was given to Danville; while others, with as much reason probably, assert that Mr. Haworth gave the town, which he was laying out, the same name as that of his son who was a cripple.  The first building in Georgetown was a doctor's office, the next house was a blacksmith shop.

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